Bit of a friendslist cleanup. Lack of interaction and the belief that the people I removed aren't really reading this is the reason for most removals. To me a friendslist is interactive and an exchange, although I realize it's not the same for everyone else. For some it's just a reading list, and that's fine too. Free to be you and me and all that. If I'm mistaken in that belief (that you're not reading) and you'd like me to put you back on, feel free to respond here. Or if you've been away/not posting and are now back, let me know. I just don't like the feeling that I'm talking to myself, in my journal or in my comments on yours. ;)

Making this public, as there may be people who know him and aren't on my f-list reading here.

Please keep my friend D and his family in your thoughts. This morning we found out his mother died. I think it was earlier today, and she was supposed to have two more months.

He lost his father and his brother two years ago, so they have had more than their share of death in that family. He sounds horrible right now. I am very worried about how he and his sister are going to live; he hasn't worked in I don't know how long because he was staying at home to take care of his mother.


When did I get to be old enough to have friends losing parents? This wasn't supposed to happen for a long time.

I know I haven't updated in a while so not many people here know that the construction started on the attic. We got an amazingly horrible storm last night, and the tarp that held up during the other rainstorms was blown into the house and collected a huge pool of water which then poured into the house. We didn't notice right away because we were in the basement. It started dripping in there. And then the downpours on the first floor became apparent.

Our contractor came over and got the water off the tarp. It took four people to do it. elmegil and gremlin44 came over and brought towels and a wet vac and blankets and various other things and helped us clean up. And think. We couldn't think or plan. Thank gods they came over, I don't know what we would have done without them. We're just in utter shock, having taken turns losing our shit. Screams of primal rage and sobbing. I don't think I've cried like that since Zach died. I feel stupid for losing it like that, but at least when one of us is losing it, it triggers "take charge" mode in the other. So we can take turns.

I know no one was hurt. We're all okay physically. We kept the dog calm and out of the way even though she always wants to help. But oh my god. There are holes in the ceiling. Water leaked on our furniture, some of it irreplaceable, some antiques, some of it from my grandmother. I hope the furniture comes out okay. We prioritized drying it off so it might. Our computers maybe not so much, especially mine... along with our wireless router and dsl modem. In a bit I'll take the cases off and let them dry out. I had borrowed a wireless broadband card from work and took my laptop home so that I could leave the house while I was on call this past weekend, and I still have both here. It's the only reason I can post this. Our clothes are soaked, or at least T's are. Some of mine are okay. The mattress in the guest room is a lost cause, and that's where we were planning to sleep during the work on the bedroom. Most of his geek stuff took a huge hit. Books and collectible stuff and out of print/production things. I feel bad that I ever said anything about him having too much geek stuff. We had piles of stuff in the basement because with the construction going on that was the only place to put it. We were going to organize it over the next couple days as best we could. But now the basement is soaked. All of it. The water had no place else to go once it hit the basement.

I know it's just stuff but it... it's not. It's not just stuff. I mean, the items themselves are, but that's not the entirety of why this is horrible. I guess the contractor's insurance will cover this stuff and our contractor is a good guy so he has already said things like, "we'll replace the carpet in the basement" and such. We won't have to fight him on any of this stuff. My mind went into overdrive last night thinking that we'd have to pay for all the damage because my instinct is not to trust insurance companies, and we just can't pay for it. We're already stretched too thin. I was mentally calculating how much credit card debt I could possibly go into to fix all this but I also wasn't really doing math very well either.

Now we have to take pictures of the damage and make a list and try to salvage what we can of the stuff we didn't salvage last night. Not that we have any place to put it. And we have to remember the other little things like buying dog food before Thursday. Certain aspects of life do go on.

And here I was feeling bad because we hadn't finished the dishes and I haven't cleaned the bathroom in a couple weeks so the sink is gross and we had a bunch of piles of crap in the basement. The house was messy. That's nothing compared to this. NOTHING. I know it may seem like I'm overreacting, but I had no idea how horrible this kind of thing was until it happened to us.

The offers of help and the help that is coming - we are very very grateful for it. Words cannot express. Thank you so much. I'm glad to have such good friends. I'm making this public because I know some of you don't have LJ's and would read anyway.

I am a stress monkey today.

On a lighter note, it's time for another episode of flea market finds. In our last episode ( Read more... )

This is how I spent my weekend.

( Before and after pics )

I haven't mounted the big heavy mirror, but here are the before and after pics of the dresser I am refinishing. I left it still somewhat distressed as I wasn't up to getting every single scratch out of the veneer, and I made some mistakes in staining. Overall I think I got vast improvement accomplished, however, and for a first time I think I did pretty well.

( Images behind the cut )